Comfort From a Friend
by Digital Sawa
Summary: Uhh... Possible MakotoxSawanaga? This story's set in the interim between Sekai blurting her secret out in front of the whole classroom and the conclusion of the anime. Contains spoilers. Convince me to finish the story if you like it enough.


"Itou!"

He turned around and spotted Sawanaga jogging toward him on the sidewalk. Makoto let out a sigh, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jacket.

"Hey, Itou, where have you been?"

Makoto shrugged and looked away toward his destination: a small convenience store on the corner of the next intersection. He'd almost made it without running into anyone he knew.

"Have you been getting your homework? You've missed a lot already… Are you okay?"

Sawanaga's concern was unavoidable. Makoto gave in. "I'm fine. The homework is fine." He hadn't done a single assignment in over a week. "What are you doing here?"

Makoto began walking toward the store again, Sawanaga following him automatically.

"I was… I was looking for you."

"Well, you found me."

"Where are you going?"

Makoto's irritation was growing. He shot a side-long glance at his friend. Sawanaga seemed upset, but also fighting to hold it back. This made Makoto's face soften a little; it wasn't like Sawanaga to hide his true feelings from Makoto.

"I'm going to get some groceries. Do you want to come with me?"

"Sure!" Sawanaga smiled wanly, reassuring to Makoto in some small way.

They shopped in silence, Makoto grabbing a few instant noodle cups, a package of roasted nori, and some melon soda. Sawanaga found himself unable to start a conversation about anything on the walk back to Makoto's house, bag hanging at his side as he walked slightly off-pace with him. Obviously something was wrong, otherwise Makoto would be in class. There were so many stories going around school, Sawanaga didn't know what to believe…

Makoto mechanically went about pouring hot water into two of the instant noodle cups he'd bought. Sawanaga stood stiffly against the doorway to the kitchen, watching him intently.

"Will you tell me what's wrong, Makoto?"

Makoto looked up at Sawanaga and sighed gently. "It's not that I don't want to tell you, I just don't know what to do about all this. I wish Sekai hadn't said that in front of everyone else…"

"You mean about the, uh…"

"Yeah."

Sawanaga looked down, wishing he hadn't brought it up. Makoto obviously didn't want to talk about it. He should've known better than to ask.

"Sawanaga, I'm sorry, I made one for you but I guess I didn't ask if you were hungry," Makoto stuck a pair of chopsticks into one of the cups and held it out to him.

"It's ok, I'll take it." Sawanaga dug into it gratefully. "I didn't eat much today." More like at all, he admitted to himself. He'd worried himself out of an appetite the last few days.

"Oh, did you want some tea?"

"Yeah. Thanks. Um… Makoto?"

"Yeah?"

"Why didn't you answer your phone when I tried to call you? Did you get my text messages?"

"Yeah, I did…" Makoto absently poked around inside his cup. "I just… didn't feel like answering. It wasn't just you, it was everyone. I haven't talked to anyone."

Sawanaga didn't quite know how to handle the sudden onset of drama surrounding Makoto. He'd always seemed such a calm, caring guy. How could he have gotten himself into so much trouble? It was only their first year of high school, so much ahead of them, and already so much seemed to have gone wrong. What troubled him the most, though, wasn't the lying, or the gossip, or Saionji's pregnancy. It was not being able to be there for Makoto, when Sawanaga knew he needed someone close to him the most. The difficulty of going through something alone was what had prompted Sawanaga to come to his house and find him. Makoto would never let Sawanaga isolate himself like he had been; it was his duty as a friend to look after him.

"I thought you might be lonely, or…" Sawanaga's sentiment came out wrong. He tensed in embarrassment, but started again. "I was worried."

"Were you?" Makoto had set his cup aside half-eaten and hopped up to sit on the counter. "You shouldn't worry too much about me."

"But I should worry about you!" Sawanaga stepped closer to him and looked him in the eye. "We're friends, right? If I shouldn't be worried about you, who will?" Sawanaga, surprised at his own conviction, gave Makoto a crooked smile and uneasily went back to picking at his cup of noodles.

"Sawanaga…" Makoto was struck at Sawanaga's sudden reaction. He'd known that they'd been pretty good friends for a while, but hadn't been aware of how deep their friendship ran. Sawanaga looked down into his cup, his hair falling from its normal swept-back state into his eyes. He reached up and brushed it aside, but it fell back again, and Makoto thought there was something so delicate about Sawanaga's fight to stay composed. Makoto was close enough to reach out and touch him; he gently run his fingers through Sawanaga's hair, putting it back into place.


End file.
